Judge Dismissal Shows Progress in the Jena 6 Case District Judge Thomas Yeager has taken over the Jena 6 case after original District Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. made some bias calls regarding the case. He had made “appearance of impropriety”…

Food Crisis in Ethiopia Drought, increase in food price, and an unstable economy have put Ethiopia in a new starvation period. This “Green Period” consists of an increase in agriculture production but a decrease of food consumption by Ethiopians who…

Bill would require paid sick days for most Modeled after San Francisco’s paid sick leave plan implemented last year, AB2716 sponsored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, would provide paid sick leave for the nearly 5.4 million workers who go…

Navanethem Pillay, Who Once Represented Nelson Mandela in Court, Has Become The New United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navanethem Pillay has gone from representing Nelson Mandela in court, to being the first non-white woman appointed in South Africa’s High Court,…

Study Shows Racial Profiling in Illinois Traffic Stops “Civil rights groups called Thursday for ending the state police practice of searching vehicles during routine traffic stops, citing new statistics that show Black and Latino motorists are searched more often even…

Saggy Pants a Crime in Michigan A new questionable anti-saggy pants policy has been installed in the city of Flint. Considered indecent exposure, this misdemeanor is punishable by 93 days to a year in jail and fines up to $500….

British city council refuses donation to servicemen Members of the Portsmouth City Council refused to donate the requested £500 to Help the Heroes, a UK-based charity for wounded servicemen. In an official rejection letter, the council stated that it feared…

Schools Look for Solutions One Year After Supreme Court Ruling Last June, the Supreme Court ruled racial integration efforts in the school districts of Seattle and Louisville to be unconstitutional. Now, many school districts are faced with the dilemma of…

CNN to air “Black in America” doc Citing the emergence of a “new paradigm,” CNN CEO Dick Parsons announces the premiere of the network’s second documentary about black life in the United States. The two-part series airs July 23rd and…

US Senate Repeals HIV Travel Ban The Senate on Wednesday, July 16 voted to repeal the HIV travel ban on an 80-16 vote. The provision to repeal the U.S. travel and immigration restrictions on persons who are HIV-positive that had…

California Creates System to Track High School Dropout Rate More surprised by the number of Black and Latino students who don’t graduate high school than the many California activists that work on the issue, California’s public schools will soon give…

ICE Raids Providence Courthouses Dozens were arrested yesterday in several raids across six Providence courthouses. Since RI Governor Don Carcieri issued an executive order cracking down on illegal immigration in the state, protest has sparked an intense debate about immigration…

Religious Rally for Iowa Immigrants After the immigration raid in Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant in Postville on May 12, many Jewish and Catholic groups from Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota are planning a rally in support of those detained in…

Interpreter: Arrested Immigrants Didn’t Understand Rights “In a 14-page essay he circulated among two dozen other interpreters who worked here, Professor Camayd-Freixas wrote that the immigrant defendants whose words he translated, most of them villagers from Guatemala, did not fully…

African Drummers Not Accepted in Harlem Anymore Though a group of African drummers has been playing in Marcus Garvey Park since the 1960s, complaints about them have risen in recent years. Majority of the complaints come from the new residents…

Deval Patrick to Reform MA Child Welfare System Governor Patrick (D-Massachusetts) signed an executive order to establish an office of the Child Advocate that will set penalties for child advocates who neglect to report child abuse and that will offer…

Law Students Find New Interest in Immigration Law “The momentum is partly driven by a high-profile, rancorous immigration debate. But it is also the result of an era of mass immigration that has fueled demand from foreigners and businesses seeking…

Bush Signs Presidential Directive for Cabinet Officials to Expand Biometric Database Since 2001, the FBI and CIA have detained and fingerprinted untold numbers of people overseas, focused on building “the world’s largest database of known or suspected terrorist fingerprints.” Now,…